Can find the registry of MSBuild 15.0 - visual-studio

I have a old project, which is created by Visual Studio 2015, and I use a bat file to get the registry of MSBuild 14.0 in this project build event. Now I have to update my project to Visual Studio 2017, so I need to update the bat file to get the MSbuild 15.0, but I could not fins it.
In Visual Studio 2015:
The registry path is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\14.0
The value is:
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Bin
But for Visual Studio 2017, I could not find the registry path.
How I get the registry value again for Visual Studio 2017?

How I get the registry value again for Visual Studio 2017?
You should to read following thread:
vswhere:
Over the years Visual Studio could be discovered using registry keys,
but with recent changes to the deployment and extensibility models a
new method is needed to discover possibly more than once installed
instance. These changes facilitate a smaller, faster default install
complimented by on-demand install of other workloads and components.
vswhere is designed to be a redistributable, single-file executable
that can be used in build or deployment scripts to find where Visual
Studio - or other products in the Visual Studio family - is located.
For example, if you know the relative path to MSBuild, you can find
the root of the Visual Studio install and combine the paths to find
what you need.
vswhere is included with the installer as of Visual Studio 2017
version 15.2 and later, and can be found at the following location:
%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe.
And you use command like the following to find the latest version installed:
#echo off
for /f "usebackq tokens=1* delims=: " %%i in (`vswhere -latest -requires Microsoft.Component.MSBuild`) do (
if /i "%%i"=="installationPath" set InstallDir=%%j
)
if exist "%InstallDir%\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe" (
"%InstallDir%\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe" %*
)
Hope this helps.

Related

MS-Build returning the visual studio installation path

How can the entry
<MsTestExePath>$(MSBuildProgramFiles32)Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\mstest.exe</MsTestExePath>
in a .proj file be generalised, such that the build works for different licenses of Visual Studio 2019 as well, where mstest.exe is located at
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual
Studio\2019\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\MSTest.exe
in the case of an enterprise license?
The most generic solution may be to replace the variable parts of the path with msbuild macros, but which ones would that be?
According to this documentation,
The macro
$(VSInstallDir)
returns the path to the installation folder of the Visual Studio version currently used.
The following entry should therefore work for all versions of visual studio, for which mstest.exe is located in the subfolder \Common7\IDE\ under the installation directory:
<MsTestExePath>$(VSInstallDir)Common7\IDE\mstest.exe</MsTestExePath>

Upgrading a solution from Visual Studio 2010 to 2013 with command-line

I'm building many Visual Studio projects (.sln solutions files) from command-line with:
call "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat"
for /r %%X in (/*.sln) do (
msbuild %%X /p:configuration=release /p:platform=win32 /nologo /noconsolelogger /fileLogger /v:quiet /flp:logfile=build_errors.log;errorsonly;append
)
Unfortunately, they all have been created with MSVS2010. Thus I get errors:
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V120\Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.targets(64,5): error MSB8020: The build tools for Visual Studio 2010 (Platform Toolset = 'v100') cannot be found. To build using the v100 build tools, please install Visual Studio 2010 build tools. Alternatively, you may upgrade to the current Visual Studio tools by selecting the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then selecting "Upgrade Solution...".
As I have 20 or 30 .sln files, I don't want to open each one and Upgrade solution, etc. (which I even didn't find exactly as mentioned here!).
Is there a command-line solution to upgrade all of them to MSVS2013 ?
You can upgrade solution and all of its project files through devenv /upgrade command. (devenv.exe is in the VS installation path (..\Common7\IDE).
devenv SolutionFile | ProjectFile /upgrade
To build solution/project without upgrade, you can specify Toolset argument (/tv).
msbuild %%X /p:configuration=release /p:platform=win32 /tv:12.0
If this is the only problem you can retarget the projects to use the VS2013 toolset instead of the one in VS2010. You can write a simple script in a language of your choice (or even do it manually) that iterates over all of your project files and replaces the value of PlatformToolset property to the <PlatformToolset>Visual Studio 2013 (v120)</PlatformToolset>. Alternatively, you can download and install the VS2010 build tools from the SDK - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8279

MSBuild windows 2012 Visual Studio 2015 cannot find AxImp.exe

I'm trying to set up Jenkins in a Windows Server 2012 and Visual Studio 2015 and I cannot build my application using MSBuild, I get some Windows SDK issue.
(ResolveComReferences target) ->
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.Common.targets(2015,5):
error MSB3091: Task failed because "AxImp.exe" was not found, or the
correct Microsoft Windows SDK is not installed. The task is looking
for "AxImp.exe" in the "bin" subdirectory beneath the location
specified in the InstallationFolder value of the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft
SDKs\Windows\v8.0A\WinSDK-NetFx40Tools-x86. You may be able to solve
the problem by doing one of the following: 1) Install the Microsoft
Windows SDK. 2) Install Visual Studio 2010. 3) Manually set the
above registry key to the correct location. 4) Pass the correct
location into the "ToolPath" parameter of the task.
I've tried the following:
Create the Registry key pointing to the SDK installed. No sucess.
Uninstall all C++ Compilers, download Windows 7 SDK iso and install, as explained here. No success.
Modify Visual Studio 2015 installation adding and removing components, marking explicitly SDKs to be installed. No success.
When building from Visual Studio it builds fine.
I really don't know what's happening here and why I cannot get it working, seems a bug to me regarding Windows or Visual Studio 2015.
The solution was much easier than it seemed to be, just changing the ToolsVersion of the Project node from 4.0 to 14.0 made the trick:
<Project ToolsVersion="14.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
So I had a really similar issue, using Jenkins and Msbuild to build projects, and getting this same error.
My solution steps:
first find out IF Aximp.exe exist on the Jenkins machine. I don't have access to the machine, so I included a stage in my jenkinsfile to run this command:
//temp, try and get location of aximp.exe on build machine
bat 'dir "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft SDKs\\Windows" /b /s aximp.exe'
I then reviewed the output to see where it lives.
then, I added a parameter to my msbuild command in my jenkinsfile like this:
bat 'msbuild mysolution.sln /p:VisualStudioVersion=14.0 "/p:TargetFrameworkSDKToolsDirectory=C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft SDKs\\Windows\\v10.0A\\bin\\NETFX 4.6.2 Tools" ' //your folder where aximp.exe lives
And the build now runs!

How to Enable WiX Projects in Visual Studio 2017

In Visual Studio 2017's New Project dialog, there is no entry for Windows Installer XML (WiX).
Is it possible to enable WiX projects in Visual Studio 2017?
You can manually enable Visual Studio 2017 compatibility with WiX 3.10 or earlier:
Close all instances of Visual Studio.
Copy
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\WiX to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\WiX
(In the destination path, replace "Enterprise" with "Professional" or "Community" depending on your edition.)
You may need to provide Administrator permission:
The result will look like this:
Copy C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\WiX to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\Microsoft\WiX
Then execute the following command as Administrator:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\devenv" /setup
(Again, replace "Enterprise" with "Professional" or "Community" depending on your edition.)
When you open Visual Studio 2017, WiX 3.10 and earlier projects will be compatible.
WiX v3.11.0.1507 provides full support for the VS 2017 Extension For WiX.
The Release Notes provide insight into why it has taken so long to provide the extension and compatibility with the extension and older versions of WiX
Note: You can use the "WiX Toolset Visual Studio 2017 Extension" with previous versions of the WiX Toolset but there is a forwards compatibility issue when building managed custom actions that is only fixed in the WiX v3.11 RC release. In other words, if you have managed custom actions and you want to use VS 2017 then you must upgrade to WiX v3.11 RC.
Edit:
The VS 2019 Extension is now available.
Edit:
The VS 2022 Extension is now available.
The Wix Releases Page has links to the other extensions.
I found that I also had to copy the WiX folder from "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\Microsoft". Without this, I got an error trying to load my WiX project that one of the MSBuild targets files couldn't be found.
WiX now offers support for Visual Studio 2017.
All you have to do is:
Close Visual Studio 2017
Install the WiX Toolset Build Tools
Install the WiX Toolset Visual Studio 2017 Extension
The answer by Chris works, but on my machine, for some reason, the Wix folder in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\WiX" had only one template named "CustomActionCPP.zip". I had to search for a complete Wix folder in other older versions of Visual Studio. It worked for me by copying Wix from "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\WiX\ProjectTemplates".
Also, had to apply the answer by Basim, by copying Wix from "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft" to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\Microsoft".
I have installed ONLY VS2017 and had to copy from another machine where VS2015 was installed the mentionen folder of #Chris Schiffhauer. The same for the folder of #Basim mentioned.
Addiontally I had to copy the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Wix Toolset 3.10\" because when I have installed WiX on my machine in this folder were still some assemblies missing.
Install the Wix Toolset Visual Studio 2019 Extension and reload the project
right-click the project folder in the path and uncheck the read-only
after install the Extension reload the Wix
use the below URL download
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=WixToolset.WixToolsetVisualStudio2019Extension

Change build tools from VS2010 to VS2015 in command line

I want to upgrade a solution in command line, so that I can build that solution / the projects within that solution with VS 2015. But somehow that does not work like expected.
What I am doing
1) Download the source code from https://ssl.icu-project.org/repos/icu/icu/tags/release-56-1/
2) Calling vcvarsall.bat for VS 2015.
3) Changing the ToolsVersion for every project
for /r "%cd%" %%a in ( *.vcxproj ) do (
sed.exe -i "s/ToolsVersion=\"4\.0\"/ToolsVersion=\"14\.0\"/g" "%%a"
)
4) Upgrade solution
rem upgrade solution
devenv "allinone\allinone.sln" /Upgrade
But nonetheless, I get warnings like this:
warning : The build tools for Visual Studio 2010 (v100) cannot be
found. To build using the Visual Studio 2015 (v140) build tools,
either click the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then
select "Upgrade Solution...". Install Visual Studio 2010 (v100) to
build using the Visual Studio 2010 (v100) build tools.
What I am missing? Is there a way how this can be done withing command line / batch ?
You must add this:
<PropertyGroup><PlatformToolset>v140</PlatformToolset><PropertyGroup>
Source: used vs2015 to upgrade the projects and checked the diffs
The ToolsVersion you changed refers to msbuild I think. The PlatformToolset is what changes the compiling toolchain.
In the Visual Studio 2015 environment, right click the solution in the Solution Explorer View, and choose "Retarget solution".

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